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Tottenham Hotspur have officially confirmed the signing of Toby Alderweireld for a reported fee of £11.4m. The Belgian international has signed a five-year-contract with the Spurs, and will join the London club from Athletico Madrid according to the London club’s official website.
The 26-year-old defender spent the previous season Southampton and was expected to join the Saints after they exercised the option to make his loan deal permanent, but his parent club Atletico intervened to cancel the agreement.
Atletico Madrid’s official website had a statement regarding Alderweireld’s departure, which said:
"Atletico de Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur have reached an agreement for the transfer of Toby Alderweireld to the club from White Hart Lane. The Belgian defender expressed his wish to our club of playing with Tottenham this season and the two clubs have finalised the transfer of the fullback to the Premier League team."
Toby will now be plying his trade at the White Hart Lane after completing all the formalities, and seemed genuinely excited about joining an ever-growing Belgian contingent at the club. Speaking to the club’s official website, he said:
"I'm very happy to be here and I hope to have a wonderful time with this team. From the beginning, I knew a lot about [the club] from Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele and Nacer Chadli. It's a big club and it's always been a dream to play at a club like Spurs. Now that dream is coming true so I'm very happy, very proud and I will give my best. I know the players from the national team and I played with Jan at Ajax, we had a central defensive partnership. It's nice when you join another club that you know a couple of players. I hope to get to know them a little better now."
He went on to add: ”There is a lot of quality in the team and good young players, the club also wants to develop. Those two games were very tough for us, Spurs had a very good team. I'm really looking forward to helping the team reach the goals we will set."
Southampton planning legal action
According to previous reports, Atletico had failed to pay the £1.5m fee needed to cancel the buy-out clause that was included in Alderweireld’s loan arrangement before the stipulated deadline, which made Southampton believe that they were entitled to buy him. They are considering legal action against the La Liga side, and earlier this week, Saints boss Ronald Koeman had this to say:
”Southampton signed the option for the player and Atletico Madrid is trying to buy back the option. In our knowledge, it is and was too late. What happened with Tottenham in the middle I don't know. Seriously, I don't know. [Head of Football Development] Les Reed is working on that situation. I wait for more news on that situation with Toby."
The centre-back, who also plays at right-back, made 25 appearances last season at Southampton from Athletico, after joining the La Liga side in 2013. He becomes Tottenham’s third signing of the summer, following the purchases of Cologne centre-back Kevin Wimmer and Burnley right-back Kieran Trippier.
